There the loving-kindness of God is secured to their souls, what- ever afflictions he lays upon their bodies, " Nevertheless my loving- '' kindness will I not take away,'' Psal. Ixxxix. 33. And their par- don is as safe as the favour of God is ; it is safely locked up in that promise, " I will remember their sins no more," Jer. xxxi. 34. Yea, heaven, together with our perseverance in the way to it, are both put out of hazard by that invaluable promise, " They shall never perish, " neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand," John x. 28.
Thus are all the essentials of a believer's happiness secured in the covenant ; and these being safe, the loss of other enjoyments should not much affect or wound them, because if he enjoy them, they add nothing to his happiness ; and if he lose them, he is still happy in God without them. And this unriddles that enigmatical expression of the apostle, 2 Cor. vi. 10. "As having nothing, yet possessing all *' things :" i. e. the substraction of all external things cannot make us miserable, who have Christ for our portion, and all our happiness entire in him.
If a man travelling on the road, fall into the hands of thieves, who rob him of a few shillings, why this doth not much affect him ; for though he has lost his spending money, yet his stock is safe at home, and his estate secure, which will yield him more. Or if a man has been at court, and there obtained a pardon for his life, or a grant of a thousand pound per amuim, and returning home should chance to lose his gloves, or his handkerchief, sure if the man be in his wits, he will not take on or mourn for the loss of these*trifles, whilst the par- don or grant is safe. Surely these things are not worth the men- tioning.
It is true, the loss of outward and earthly things are to a believer real trials, yet they are but seeming losses : and therefore they are ex- pressed in the apostle's phrase, with a tanquam, s'lcut : " As chasten^
APPLIED TO AFFLICTED SAINTS. 105
** ed, and not killed ; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing," 2 Cor. \i. 9. And if your losses be but as it were losses, your sorrows should be but as it were sorrows : much like a physic-sickness, which we do not call a proper sickness, but as it were a sickness because it conduceth to the health, and not to the hurt of the person ; as all God's medicinal afflictions on his people also do.
Indeed, if the stroke of God were at our souls, to cut them off from Christ and heaven, to raise our names out of the covenant, or revoke the pardon of sin; then we had cause enough to justify the extremity of sorrow ; cause enough to weep out our eyes, and break our hearts for such a dismal blow as that would be. But blessed be God you stand out of the way of such strokes as these; let God strike round about you, or lay his hand upon any other comforts you possess, he will never smite you in these essential things, which is certainly enough to allay and relieve all your other sorrows.
My name is blotted out of the earth, but still it is written in hea- ven. God hath taken my only son from me, but he hath given his only Son for me, and to me. He hath broken off my hopes and expectations as to this world, but my hopes of heaven are fixed sure and immoveable for ever. My house and heart are both in confu- sion and great disorder, but I have still an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure. I cannot say my son liveth, but I can still say, " I know that my Redeemer liveth. The grass " withereth, and the flower fadeth ; but the word of the Lord abid- " eth for ever," Isa. xl. 8.
Arg. VI. As God strikes none of the substantial mercies of his co- venant people, so when he doth smite their external accidental com- forts, the covenant of grace assures them, that even those strokes are the strokes of love, and not wrath ; the wounds of a friend, and not of an enemy ; which is another singular relief to the afflicted soul.
The most frightful thing in any affliction, is the mark or character of God's wrath which it seems to bear : take away that, and the afflic- tion is nothing. " O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither " chasten me in thy hot displeasure," Psal vi. 1. He doth not de- precate the rebukes, but the anger of God ; not his chastening, but his hot displeasure. God's anger is much more terrible than his re- buking, and his hot displeasure than his chastening. Therefore he intreats, that whatever God did to him in the way of affliction, he would do nothing in the way of wrath ; and then he could bear any thing from him. A mark of Divine anger engraven upon any afflic- tion, makes that affliction dreadful to a gracious soul.
But if a man be well satisfied, that whatever anguish there be, yet there is no anger, but that the rod is in the hand of love : O how it eases the soul and lightens the burden ! Now this desirable point is abundantly cleared in the covenant ; where we find a clear consist- ence, yea, a necessary connection betwixt the love and the rod of
106 THE BALM OF THE COVENANT
God, Psal. Ixxxix. 31. and Heb. xii. 6. Nay, so rare are the afflic- tions of the saints from being marks of his wrath, that they are the fruits and evidences of his fatherly love.
Two men walking through the streets, see a company of boys fight- ing, one of them steps forth, and singles out one of those boys, and carries him home to correct him ; which of the two, think you, is that child's father.^ The case standing thus with all God's people, surely there is no reason for their despondencies whatever their af- flictions be.
Arg. VII. Lastly, The covenant doth not only discover the con- sistence and connection betwixt the love and the rod of God, but it also gives full satisfaction to the saints, that whatsoever contemporary mercy they are deprived of, which was within the bond of the cove- nant when they enjoyed it, is not lost, but shall certainly be restored to them again with a rich improvement, and that they shall enjoy it again to all eternity.