that it was a very sad condition those poor people were in, to be thus hurried from the society of men, and to be made companions with the beasts of the field. True, said another, it were a sad condition indeed if they were carried to a place where they should not find their God ; but let them be of good cheer, God goes along with them, and will ex- hibit the comforts of his presence whithersoever they go. The presence- of God with the spirits of his people, is a breast of comfort that can never be drawn dry ; it is an everlasting spring that will never fail, Heb. xiii. 5, 6. Well ! Christian, thou art under many great troubles, many sore trials: but tell me, doth God give unto thy soul such cordials, such supports, such comforts, and such refreshments, that the world knows not of 1 Oh ! then, certainly thy affliction is in love. .
4. Fourthly, If by your affliction you are made more conformable to Christ in M& virtues, then certainly your afflictions are in love. Many are conformable to Christ in their sufferings, that are not made conformable to Christ in his virtues by their sufferings ; many are in poverty, neglect, shame, contempt, reproach, &c, like to Christ, who yet by these are not made more like to Christ in his meekness, humble- ness, heavenliness, holiness, righteousness, faithfulness, fruitfulness, goodness, contentedness, patience, submission, subjection.1 Oh ! but if in these things you are made more like to Christ, without all perad- venture your afflictions are in love. If by afflictions the soul be led to shew forth, or to preach forth, the virtues of Christ, as that word im- ports in that 1 Peter ii. 9,2 then certainly those afflictions are in love ; for they never have such an operation but where they are set on by a hand of love. When God strikes as an enemy, then all those strokes do but make a man more an enemy to God, as you see in Pharaoh and others ; but when the strokes of God are the strokes of love, oh ! then they do but bring the soul nearer Christ, and transform the soul more and more into the likeness of Christ, Isa. xxvi. 8-10, Jer. vi. 3, Amos vi. 1. If by thy afflictions thou art made more holy, humble, heavenly, &c, they are in love. Every afflicted Christian should strive to be honoured with that eulogy of Salvian, Singularis domini piwclarus imitator, an excellent disciple of a singular master. But,
5. Fifthly, If by outward afflictions thy soid be brought more under the inward teachings of God, doubtless thy afflictions are in love, Job xxxiv. 31, 32 : Ps. xciv. 12, ' Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law.' All the chastening in the world, without divine teaching, will never make a man blessed ; that man that finds correction attended with instruction, and lashing with lessoning, is a happy man. If God, by the affliction that is upon thee, shall teach thee how to loathe sin more, how to trample upon the world more, and how to walk with God more, thy afflictions are in love. If God shall teach thee by afflictions how to die to sin more, and how to die to thy relations more, and how to die to thy self-interest more, thy afflictions are in love. If God shall teach thee by afflictions how to live to Christ more, how to lift up Christ more, and how to long for Christ more, thy afflictions are in love. If God shall teach thee by afflictions to get assurance of a better life, and to be still in a gracious readiness
1 Witness Judas, Demas, and those in the sixth of John, and many Quakers and other deluded people amongst us at this day. 2 \\a.yyu\nTi, publicly to set forth.
344 THE MUTE CHRISTIAN [Ps. XXXIX. 9.
and preparedness for the day of thy death, thy afflictions are in love. It" God shall teach thee by afflictions how to mind heaven more, how to live in heaven more, and how to fit for heaven more, thy afflict inns are in love. If God by afflictions shall teach thy proud heart how to lie more Low, and thy hard heart how to grow more humble, and thy cen- sorious heart how to grow more charitable, and thy carnal heart how to grow more spiritual, and thy froward heart how to grow more quiet, &c, thy afflictions are in love. When God teaches thy reins as well as thy brains, thy heart as well as thy head, these lessons, or any of these les- sons, thy afflictions are in love. Pambo, an illiterate dunce, as the historian terms him, was a-learning that one lesson, 'I said I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue/ nineteen years, and yet had not learned it.1 Ah ! it is to be feared that there are many who have been in the school of affliction above this nineteen years, and yet have not learned any saving lesson all this while. Surely their afflic- tions are not in love, but in wrath. Where God loves, he afflicts in love, and wherever God afflicts in love, there he will, first or last, teach such souls such lessons as shall do them good to all eternity. But,
(6.) Sixthly, If God suit your burdens to your backs, your trials fa your strength, according to that golden promise, 1 Cor. x. 13, y<mr afflictions are in love. ' There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man : but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able ; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.' When God's strokes and a Christian's strength are suited one to another, all is in love, Isa. xxvii. 8, Jei\ xxx. 11, xlvi. 28. Let the load be never so heavy that God lays on, if he put under his eveidasting arms, all is in love, Gen. xlix. 23, 24. As Egypt had many venomous creatures, so it had many antidotes against them. When God shall lay antidotes into the soul against all the afflictions that befall a Christian, then they are all in love. It is no matter how heavy the burden is, if God gives a, shoulder to bear it : all is in love ; it is no matter how bitter the cup is, if God give courage to drink it off; it is no matter how hot the fur- nace is, if God gives power to walk in the midst of it : all is in love.