then certainly onr losses arc abundantly made up to us. If men should take away your old clothes, and give you new ; your rags, and give you robes ; your chaff, and give you wheat ; your water, and give you wine ; your tin, and give you silver ; your brass, and give you gokl ; your pebbles, and give you pearls ; your cottages, and give you royal palaces, certainly you would have no cause to complain, you would have no cause to cry out, Undone ! undone ! If God takes away your houses, your goods, your trades, your honours, and gives you more of himself, and more grace, and more assurance of glory, he does you no injury. It is an excellent change, to get eternals for temporals. If God takes away your earthly riches, and makes you more rich in grace, in spiritual comforts, in holy experiences, in divine employments, then you are no losers, but great gainers. What are all the necessary comforts of this life to union and communion with God, to interest in Christ, to pardon of sin, to peace of conscience, and to that loving-kindness that is better than life, or better, Chaiim, than lives, as the Hebrew runs ? Ps. Ixiii. 3. If you put many lives together, there is more excellency and glory in the least discovery of divine love than in them all. Many a man has been weary of his life, but never was any man yet weary of the love and favour of God. The least drop of grace, the least smile from heaven, the least cast of Christ's countenance, the least kiss of his mouth, the least embrace of his arm, the least hint of his favour, is more worth than ten thousand worlds, Cant. ii. 3-7. That Christian cannot be poor that is rich in grace ; nor that Christian cannot be miserable that has God for his portion. That Christian cannot be unhappy who hath a mansion pre- pared for him in heaven, though he hath not a cottage to hide his head in, in this world ; nor that Christian has no cause to complain of want of food for his body whose soul is feasted with manna, with the dainties of heaven, with those rarities that are better than angels' food.^ He that hath but rags to cover his nakedness, if his soul be clothed with the garments of salvation, and covered with the robe of Christ's righteousness, he has no reason to complain, Isa. Ixi. 10. When Stilpo the philosopher had his wife, and children, and country all burnt up before him, and was asked by Demeti"ius what loss he had sustained, answered, 'That he had lost nothing; for he counted that only his own which none could take from him — to wit, his virtues. Shall blind nature do more than grace ? Shall the heathen put the Christian to a blush ?
Again, sometimes God makes up his people's outward losses, by giving in greater outward mercies than those were that he took from them ; as you may see by comparing the first chapter of Job and the last chapter of Job together : Job had all doubled to him. I have read of Dionysius, [Plutarch,] how he took away from one of his nobles almost his whole estate, and seeing him as cheerful and con- tented as ever, he gave him all that he had taken from him again, and as much more. God many times takes away a little, that he may give more ; and sometimes he takes away all, to shew his sovereignty, and then he gives them all back again with interest upon interest, to
' Rev. ii. 8, 9; Lnm. iii. 21 ; .Tohn xiv. 1-4 ; Ileb. xi. 37, 3S ; Rev. ii. 17 : John iv. 30, 31.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] TMP] LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 179
shew his great liberality and noble bounty. That is a lovely loss, that is made up with so great gain.
Quest. But, sir, how shall we know, or probably conjecture, whether in this world God will make up our worldly losses to us or not ? If you please to speak a little to this question, it may be many ways of use unto us.
Now that I may give you a little light to the question, give me leave to put a few questions to such who have been sufferers by the late fiery dispensation : —
[1.] First, Did you make conscience of improving your estates to the glory of God, and the good of others, lohen you did enjoy them ; or did you only make them subservient to your lusts ? If you have laid out your estates for God, and for his children's good, it is ten to one but that the Lord, even in this world, will make up your losses to you, Deut. xxxii. 15, 16 ; Hosea iv. 7 ; James iv. 3. But if you mis- improved your estates, and turned your mercies into encouragements to sin, then you have more cause to fear that the Lord may further blast you, than you have to hope that God will make up your losses to you. But,
[2.] Secondly, Did you daily and seriously labour to enjoy much of God in all those tvorldly enjoyments luhich formerly you were blest loithal? If so, it is very probable that the Lord may make up all your losses to you ; but if you made a god of your worldly enjoyments — if they had more of your thoughts, and hearts, and time, than God himself had, then you have more cause to fear a further curse, than to expect a future blessing, Prov. iii. 33 ; Mai. ii. 2. But,
[3.J Thirdly, Did your hearts commonly, ordinarily , habitually lie loiv under your worldly enjoyments f Abraham, under all his worldly enjoyments, was but ' dust and ashes ; ' and Jacob under his was ' less than the least of all mercies,' Gen. xviii. 27, and xxxii. 10 ; and so David, under all God's royal favours, his heart lies low : Ps. xxii. 6, ' But I am a Avorni, and no man.' David in the Arabic tongue signifies a worm, to which he seems to allude. The word in the Hebrew for worm is tolagnaih, which signifies such a very little worm that a man can very hardly see it or perceive it. Though David was high in the world, yet he was little, yea, very little, in his own eyes. Was it com- monly, mostly thus with you when your comforts compassed you round about ? If so, then it is very probable that the Lord in this world will make up all your losses to you. But if your blood did commonly rise with your outward goods, and if your hearts did usually so swell imder your worldly enjoyments as to say with Pharaoh, ' Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice ? ' Exod. v. 2 ; or to say with Nebuchadnezzar, ' Who is that God that can deliver you out of my hands ? ' Dan. iii. 15 ; or to say with those proud atheists, ' Who is Lord over us?' Ps. xii. 4 ; or to say with those proud monsters, ' We are lords, we will come no more unto thee,' &c., Jer. ii. 31, then you have great cause to fear that God that hath yet some further controversy with you, and, ' except you repent,' will rather strip you of what you enjoy, than multiply further favours or blessings upon you. But,
[4.] Fourthly, Since God has burnt up your icorldly goods, have you been fervent and frequent with God that he ivoidd burn up those
180 London's lamkntatiunh on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.