Unrelieved miseries are the most intolerable miseries. To be over- weighed with troubles on earth, and want support and comfort from heaven, is a dismal state indeed ; yet this is the case of multitudes in the world. If abehever be in trouble, his God bears his burden for him, yea, he bears up him and his burden too ; but he that hath no covenant-interest in God, must say as it is, Jer. x. 19. *' This is my " affliction, and I alone must bear it."
There are but two ways they can take for relief, either to divert their trouble by that which will inflame them, or rest their burdened spirits upon that which will fail them. To run to the tavern or ale-house, instead of the closet, is to quench the fire by pouring on
APPLIED TO AFFLICTED SAINTS. 113
Oil : and to run from one creature whieh is smitten and withered, to another which still continues with us, is to lean upon a broken reed, which not only deceives us, but wounds and pierceth us. What a miserable plight was Saul in, and how doleful was his cry and com- plaint to Samuel, 1 Sam. xxviii. 15. " I am sore distressed, for the " Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, " and answereth me no more." Heaven and earth forsook him at once.
Reader, if this be thy case, I advise thee to rest no longer in so miserable a condition. Thy very distress seems by an happy necessity to put thee upon God, and drive thee to him for refuge ; and it seems to be the very aim and design of God in blasting all thy earthly com- forts, to necessitate thee to come to him, which thou wouldst never be persuaded to do, whilst thou hadst any creature-prop to stay and rest upon. And think not that thou shalt be rejected, because thou art brought by a plain necessity to him ; come sincerely, and thou shalt not be upbraided because a necessity threw thee upon him.
Use II. Seeing then that the covenant of God is the great relief and support of all his afflicted people, let the afflicted soul go to this blessed covenant ; study and apply it in all distresses. It is in itself a sovereign cordial, able to revive a gracious spirit at the lowest ebb ; but then it must be studied and applied, or it will never give forth its consolations to our refreshment. Extreme sorrows are apt to deafen our ears to all voices of comfort. The loud cries of affliction too often drown the sweet still voice of spiritual consolation ; but either here or no where our redress is to be found. Why seek we the living among the dead ? Comfort from things that cannot yield it ? The covenant can discover two things which are able to pacify the most discomposed heart, viz.
i Thefnd^} °f^®<=t'<'"- 1. It will discover to us the good of affliction, and so rectify our mistaken judgments about it. God is not undoing but consulting our interest and happiness in all these dispensations. It will satisfy us, that in all these things he doth no more than what we ourselves allow and approve in other cases. It is not merely from his pleasure, but for our profit, that these breaches are made upon our families and com- forts, Heb. xii. 10. Who blames the mariner for casting the goods over-board to save ship and hfe in a storm .^^ or the surgeon for lancing, yea, or cutting off a leg or arm to preserve the life of his patient ? or soldiers for burning or beating down the suburbs to save the city in a siege ? And why must God only be censured, for cutting off those things from us which he knows will hazard us in the day of tempta- tion ? He sees the less we have of entanglement, the more prompt- ness and fitness we shall have to go through the trials that are coming upon us ; and that all the comforts he cuts off' from our bodies are for the profit and advantage of our souls.
114? THE BALM OF THE COVEKAXT
2. Here you gain a sight not only of the good of affliction, but also of the comfortable end and issue of affliction. This cloudy and stormy morning will wind up in a serene and pleasant evening. There is a vast difference betwixt our meeting with afflictions, and our parting from them. " You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen " the end of the Lord."" O get but Jobs spirit under affliction, and you may see as happy an end of them as he did.
Had Naomi seen the end of tlie Lord in taking away her liusband, and starving her out of Moab, she would not have changed her name,* or said the Lord had dealt bitterly M-ith her, in grafting her daughter by that providence into that noble line, out of which the Saviour of the world was to rise ; and could you but see that good in order to which all this train of troubles is laid, you would not murmur or despond as you do.
Objection 1. O but this is a grievous stroke ; God hath smitten me in the apple of mine eye, and written bitter things against me. No soiTow is like my sorrow ; it is a mourning for an only son ; I have lost all in one.
Solution!. Yon can never lose all in one, except that one be Christ; and he being your's in covenant can never be lost. But your mean- ing is, you have lost all of that kind in one, no more sons to build up your house, and continue your name.
2. But yet religion will not allow you to say that your dead chil- dren are a lost generation. Prcemittuntur, non amittuntur ; They are sent before, but not lost. For they are a covenant-seed, by you dedicated to the Lord : They were children of many prayers ; a great stock of prayers was laid up for them ; in them also you, and all that knew them, discerned a teachable spirit, pious inclinations, and con- science of secret duties, some good things toward the Lord God of Israel, as was said of young Abijah, 1 Kings xiv. 13. So that you parted from them upon easier terms than good David parted from his Amnon, Absalom, or Adonijah,who died in their sins and open rebellions. There was a sting in his troubles which you feel not ; and if he comforted himself, notwithstanding, in the covenant of his God, in this respect you may much more.
Object. 2. O but my son was cut off in the very bud, just when the fruits of education were ready to disclose and open,
Sol. Let not that consideration so incense your sorrows ; God knows the fittest time both to give and to take our comforts ; and seeing you have good grounds to hope your child died interested in the covenant of God, you have the less reason to insist upon that afflicting circumstance of an immature death. He that dies in Christ hath hved long enough both for himself and us. That mariner hath sailed long enough that hath gained his port ; and that soldier fought long enough that hath won the victory ; and that child lived long enough that hath won heaven, how early soever he died.
APPLIED TO AFFLICTED SAINTS. 115