VeR. 50.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 33
instruments, if we look no further ! But if we consider tlie providence of God, Job i. 23, not Domhuis dcdit, diaholus abshdit, but 'The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord,' So for contumely and reproaches ; if God let loose a barking Shimei upon us, 2 Sam. xvi. 11, ' The Lord bid him curse.' To resist a lower officer is to resist the authority with which he is armed. So in all other cases, it is a ground of patience and comfort to see God in the providence.
[2.] His fatherly care over his people. He hath taken them into his family, and all his doings with them are paternal and fatherly. It allayeth our cares : Mat. vi. 32, ' Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye hath need of all these things.' Our sorrows in affliction are lessened by considering they come from our Father : Heb. xii. 5-7, ' Ye have forgotten the exhortation that speaketh upon you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him ; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons ; for what son is that whom the father chasteneth not ? But if ye be without chastisement, ' whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons ;' and so tho^e whom God doth love tenderly, he doth correct severely.
[3.] His unchangeable love to his people. God remaineth unchange- iibly the same. When our outward condition doth vary and alter, we have the same blessed God as a rock to stand upon, and to derive our comforts from, that we had before : he is the God of the valleys, as ■well as of the hills. Christ in his desertion saith, ' My God, my God,' Mat. xxvii. 46. Surely we deserve that the creature should be taken from us, if we cannot find comfort in God : Hab. iii. 18, ' Although the fig-tree should not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vine, &c., yet will I rejoice in the Lord ; I will joy in the God of my salvation ;' ' Nothing can separate us from the love of God,' Kom. viii. 36. Men may separate us from our houses, countries, friends, estates, but not from God, who is our great delight. In our low estate we have a God to go to for comfort, and who should be more to us than our sweetest pleasures.
[4.] The scripture showeth us the true doctrine about afflictions, and discovereth to us the author, cause, and end of all our afflictions. The author is God, the cause is sin, the end is to humble, mortify, and correct his children, that they may be more capable of heavenly glory. God is the author ; not fortune, or chance, or the will of man ; but God, who doth all things with the most exact wisdom, and tender mercy, and purest love. The cause is just : Micah vii. 9, ' I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him.' The €nd is our profit, for his chastisements are purgative medicines, to prevent or cure some spiritual disease. If God should never administer physic till we see it needful, desire to take it, or be willing of it, we should perish in our corruptions, or die in our sins, for want of help in due time : 1 Cor. xi. 32, ' But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.' Now, should we not patiently and comfortably endure those things which come by the w^ill of our Father, through our sins, and for our good ?
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34 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. LVI.
3. The examples of the word, which show us that the dearly beloved of the Lord have suffered harder things than we have done, and with greater patience. Christ : 1 Peter ii. 21, ' Who suffered for us, leav- ing us an example that we should follow his steps.' The servants of the Lord : James v. 10, ' Take, my brethren, the prophets of the Lord, ■who have spoken the word of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.' We complain of stone and gout ; what did our Lord Jesus Christ endure when the Avhole weight of his body hung upon four wounds, and his life dropped out by degrees ? We complain of every painful disease, but how was it with Christ when his back was scourged, and his flesh mangled with whips ? We are troubled at the swellings of the gout in hands or feet ; how was it wdth him when those sinewy parts were pierced with strong and great nails ? We complain of the want of spiritual consolations ; was not he deserted ? We mourn when God maketh a breach upon our relations ; was not Abraham's trial greater, when he was to offer his son with his own hands ? Heb. xi. 17, ' By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac ; and he that had received the promise offered up his only-begotten son.' Job lost all his children at once by a blast of wind. The Virgin Mary near the cross of Christ, ' AVoman, behold thy son,' John xix. 26. She was affected and afflicted with that sight, 'as if a sword pierced through her heart.' We complain of poverty ; Christ 'had not where to lay his head.' If we lose our coat to keep our conscience, others of Grod's children have been thus tried before us : Heb. x. 34, ' Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your' goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.' The Levites ' left their inheritance,' 2 Chron. xi. 14. Thus God doth not call us by any rougher way to heaven than others have gone before us.