Orpah did with Kuth, and then take his leave of God, as Orpah did of her mother, Kuth i. 10-15 ; but he resolves, whatever comes on it, that he will walk constantly, resolutely, and perpetually before God, or before the face of the Lord. Now walking before the face of the Lord doth imply a very exact, circumspect, accurate, and precise walking before God ; and indeed no other walking is either suitable or pleasing to the eye of God. But is this all that he will do upon the receipt of such signal mercies ? oh no ! for he resolves to take the cup of salvation, and to call upon the name of the Lord, and to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving, vers. 13, 17. But is this all that he will do ? oh no ! for he resolves that he will presently pay his vows unto the Lord in the presence of all his people, vers. 14, 18. But is this all that he will do ? oh no ! for he resolves that he will love the Lord better than ever and more than ever, vers. 1,2. He loved God before with a real love, but having now received such rare mercies from God, he is resolved to love God with a more raised love, and with a more inflamed love, and with a more active and stirring love, and with a more growing and increasing love than ever. And so the apostle in that Kom, xii. 1, 2, ' I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world ; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.' When this great apostle would work up the Komans to a full resignation of themselves to God and to his service, and would fence and arm them against the sinful fashions, customs, examples, dispositions, and practices of a corrupt and wicked world, he sets the mercies of God before them. The apostle very well knew that there was no such spur to holiness, nor no such preservative against wickedness, as this was. The apostle could have set threatenings before them, and the curse before them, and wrath before them, and former and latter judgments before them, and hell before them; and yet he passes over all these things, and presents the mercies of God before them, as the most effectual means under heaven to engage them to holiness, and to fortify them against all sinful conformity and worldly vanity. 0 sirs ! you are all under several signal mercies this day. You are out of hell, and is not that a signal mercy ? you have many mercies that others want, and is not that a signal mercy ? yea, God rains manna every day about your tents when others wander several miles, and are too often put off with stones instead of bread, and is not that a signal mercy ? That wicked men's hearts should be so full of wrath, rage, revenge, envy, and malice, and you cast at their feet and yet not trod to death, is a signal mercy ; that you should stand when others fall, that you should be faithful when others are false, that you should persevere when others backslide, that you should be for God when so many are for Baal, and that you should be followers of the Lamb when so many thousands are dancing after Antichrist's pipes, are all very rare and signal mercies ; and calls aloud upon you to be holy, yea, to be eminently holy, &c. But,
[3 ] Thirdly, Times of personal afflictions are times wherein God calls aloud for holiness. When the rod of God is upon our backs, it
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 439
highly concerns us to look that our words are full of grace, and that all our ways and works are full of holiness, i Now God looks that his people should be divinely fearful of offending him, and divinely careful in pleasing of him, and divinely willing to resign up themselves to liim, and divinely patient in waiting on him, and divinely humble in sub- mitting to him, and divinely wise in justifying of him, and divinely resolute in serving of him : Heb. xii. 10, ' But he afflicts us for our profit, that we might be made partakers of his holiness.' Why, they were before partakers of his holiness, that is true ; and these words declare that the great reach and design of God, in all the afflictions that he brings upon his people, is to make them more and more holy ; and therefore for Christians to be proud under the rod, and carnal under the rod, and worldly under the rod, and fro ward under the rod, and stupid under the rod, and wanton under the rod, and wicked under the rod, is to cross and frustrate the great design of God in afflicting of them. In afflictions God looks that his people should shine brighter and brighter, and grow better and better, and holier and holier. Oh, there is nothing that pleases God more, that delights God more, that affects God more, or that wins upon God more, than to see his people a holy people in the days of their afflictions : Jer. ii. 2, 3, ' Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying. Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou weutest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the firstfruits of his increase : all that devour him shall offend ; evU shall come upon them, saith the Lord.' God was wonderfully affected and taken with the love of his people, and with the kindness of his people, and with the holiness of his people, when they were in their wilderness condition. Look, as stars shine brightest in the darkest nights, and as torches are the better for beating, and spices the sweeter for pounding, and young trees the f aster HFOOted for shaking, and vines the more fruitful for bleeding, and gold the more glittering for scouring : so God looks that his children's graces should shine brightest in the darkest nights of afflictions, he looks that his children should be the better for his fatherly beating, and the sweeter for being pounded in the mortar of affliction, and the faster rooted in grace and holiness, by all divine shakings," &c.
In times of affliction God looks that his children should be true salamanders, that live best in the fire. Where afflictions hang heaviest, he looks that there corruptions should hang loosest ; he looks that that grace and holiness which lies hid in nature, as sweet water doth in rose leaves, should then be most fragrant, when the fire of affliction is put under to distil it out, &c. But,
[4.] Fourthly, When persons that are under a great profession, or in church communion, shall fall presumpt^iously and scandalously, lohen they shall not only do weakly, but loickedly, when not only in- firmities, hut enormities may he justly and righteously charged upon them ; when such persons walk so loosely, and vainly, as that they occasion the name of God to he hlasphemed, religion to be scorned, the
^ See my ' Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod,' &c. [Vol. i., pp. 285, seq.—G.} ' Well-waters are hottest in the winter.