want. No loss, no cross, no aflliotion will sit heavy npon a patient soul. Dionysius saith that this benelit he had hy the study of pliilo- sophy — viz., that he bore with patience all those alterations and changes that he met with in his outward condition. Now shall nature do more than grace ? shall the study of philosophy do more than the study of Christ, Scripture, and a man's own heart ? But,
4. The fourth duty that lies upon those who have heen burnt up, is to set up the Lord in a more i'lninent degree than ever, as the great object of their fear. Oh how should we fear and tremble before the great God, who is able to turn the most serviceable and useful crea- tures to us to be the means of destroying of us ! Heh. xii. 28, 'Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acce})tably, with reverence and godly fear;' ver. 2i), ' For our God is a consuming fire.' Here are two arguments to work the saints to set up God as the great object of their fear. Tlie first is drawn from the terribleness of God's majesty, ' He is a consuming fire.' The second is drawn from the relation which is between God and his people, ' Our God.' What a strange title is this of the great God, that we meet with in this place ! and yet this is one of the titles of God, expressing his nature, and in which he glories, that he is called ' a consuming fire.' These words, ' God is a consuming fire,' are not to be taken properly, but metaphorically. Fire, we know, is a veiy terrible and dreadful creature ; and so may very well serve to set forth to us the terribleness and dreadfulness of God. Now God is here said to be a consuming or devouring fire. The word in the original, KaravaXia-Kop, is doubly compounded, and so the signification is augmented and increased, to note to us the exceeding terribleness of the fire that is here meant. When God would set forth himself to be most terrible and dreadful to the sons of men, he docs it by this re- semblance of fire, which of all things is most terrible and intolerable : Deut. iv. 24, ' For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jea- lous God.' The Hebrew word, n'^DJ^, that is here rendered consuming, doth properly signify devouring or eating ; it comes from 72i^, which signifies to devour and eat ; and by a metaphor, it signifieth to con- sume or destroy. God is a devouring fire, an eating fire; and siimers, and all they have, is but bread and meat for divine wrath to feed upon: Deut. ix. 3, ' Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is he which goeth before thee ; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath said unto thee.' See Ps. 1. 3; Isa. xxxiii. 14; IJeut. xxviii. 58. What more violent, what more irresistible, what more terrible than fire ! Oh how much therefore does it concern us to set up that God as the great object of our fear, who hath ai-med and commanded this dreadful creature, the fire, to destroy us in many or in most of our outward concernments as to this world ! Jer. x, 11, 'At his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indigna- tion:' Job xiii. 11, 'Shall not his excellency make you afraid, and his dread fall upon you?' Ps. cxix. 120, ' My flesh trembletli for fear of thee, and 1 am afraid of thy judgments:' Hab. iii. 5, ' Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet;' ver. 16, ' When I heard, ray belly trembled ; my lips quivered at the voice :
IsA. XLTI. 24, 25.] the late fiery dispensation. 243
rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble/ Ah London, London ! it highly concerns thee to tremble and quiver, and stand in awe of that great and glorious God who hath sent so many thousands to their long homes by a sweeping pestilence, and who hath by a dreadful fire turned thy ancient monuments and thy stately buildings into a ruinous heap. That Christian is more worth than the gold of Ophir, who fears more the hand that hath laid on the fiery rod than the rod itself. That prudent and faithful counsel which the prophet Isaiah gives, should always lie warm upon every burnt citizen's heart: Isa. viii. 13, ' Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread/ But,
5. The fifth duty that lies upon those who have been burnt up, is to he contented loith tJieir present condition?- When a man's mind is brought down to his means, all is well. Contentation of mind under all the turns and changes of this life, makes a believer master both of the little and great world of unruly desires within himself, and of temptations in the world without. Contentment in a man's present condition, will yield him a little heaven in the midst of all the great hells that he meets with in this world. Contentation is a hidden treasure, that the believer will carry with him to the third heaven, where an exceeding weight of glory and contentation, with full satis- faction to his desires, will be added to that little stock of contentment that he has obtained in this world. Contentation in every condition, is no other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven, as Jacob once speaks of that gracious manifestation of God, Gen. xxviii. God dwells in a contented heart, and a contented heart dwells in God. Contentment is that porch wherein the believer waits for an entrance into a house not made with hands, but one eternal in the heaven, 2 Cor. V. i. Oh labour much with God, that your hearts may be brought fully under the power of these divine commands: — 1 Tim. vi. 8, ' Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content.' Heb. xiii. 5, ' Let your conversation be without covetousness' — or without the love of silver, as the Greek word signifies, — 'and be content with such things as you have.' Conteiiti prcesentibus : so Beza and others, 'Be content with things present.' The believing Hebrews had been plundered of all they had in this world, Heb. x. 34, when the apostle gave forth this royal command ; and yet the apostle requires them to be content. It is as much the duty of a Christian to be content when he has nothing, as when all the world smiles upon him. Christians are soldiers, strangers, travellers, pilgrims, and therefore it concerns them to make shift with little things, yea, with anything in this world. The Israelites had no gay clothes, nor no new clothes in their wilder- ness condition ; but God made their old clothes to be all clothes to them, and that was enough. Jacob did not indent with God for junkets 2 or ornaments, but for food and raiment: Gen, xxviii. 20, ' If God will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, then shall the Lord be my God.' Nature is content with a little, grace with less ;