(2.) It quickeneth others to be more careful of their duty, more watchful against sin, and doth exercise and improve us in heavenly virtues and graces of spirit, which lay dormant in us through n^lect, since pleasing objects, which deaden the heart, are removed. Even God's best children, when they have gotten a carnal pillow under their heads, are apt to sleep ; their prayers are dead ; thoughts of heaven culd, or none ; little zeal for God or delight in him : Isa. xxvi. 16, ' Lord, in trouble they have visited thee ; they pour out a prayer when thy chastening is upon them ; ' Hosea v. 15, ' In their afflictions they will seek me early.' Because they do not stir up themselves, God stirreth them up by a smart rod. The husbandman pruneth the vine, kst it run out into leaves ; the baits of the flesh must be taken from us, that our gust and relish of heavenly things may be recovered.
Use 1. The use is to caution us against our murmurings and taxing of God's providence. How few are there that give him thanks for his seasonable discipline, and observe God's faithfidness and the benefit they have by afflictions, but rather murmur, repine, and fret through impatience ! If it be good to be afflicted, let us accept of it, for good is matter of choice : Lev. xxvi. 41, "If their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity.' Kow all afliiction on this side hell is good, as it is a lesser evil; hie ure, hie seca, if God will cut here, burn here, lance here, as a chirur- geon, that we may not be destroyed for ever; corrected, that we may not be condemned, 1 Cor. xi. 32. It is good, as it is a means to good ; for the end putteth a loveliness also upon the means, though things in
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258 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [Ser. LXXIX.
themselves be harsh and sour. We must not consider what things are in themselves, but what they are in their reduction, tendency, and final use. So all things are yours, crosses, deaths, 1 Cor. iii. 18 ; all their crosses, yea, sometimes their sins and snares, by God's overruling. We lose the benefit of our afiliction by our murmurings, repinings, faintings, carnal sorrows and fears ; an impatient distrustful mind spoileth the working of God : ' Tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience.' It is not the bare afiliction worketh, but the affliction meekly borne. Let us not misconstrue God's present way of dealing with us. There may be a seeming harshness in some of his dealings, but yet, all things considered, you will find them full of mercy and truth. Murmuring is a disorder in the affections, misin- terpreting in the understanding, to prevent it.
1. Consider j'ou must not interpret the covenant by God's provi- dence, but God's providence by his covenant. Certain it is that all new covenant dispensations are mercy and truth, Ps. xxv. 10, our cresses not excepted ; by them God is pursuing his covenant and eternal purpose concerning our salvation. There is sometimes a seeming contradiction between his promises and his providences, word and works ; his voice is sweet like Jacob's, but his hand rough like Esau's. Go unto the sanctuary, and God will help you to reconcile things, Ps. Ixxiii. 16, 17 ; otherwise the difficulty will be too hard for you. The children of God, that have suspected or displeased him, have always found themselves in error, Isa. xlix. 14, 15. His promise is the light side, his providence the dark side of the cloud : Ps. Ixxvii. 19, ' Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the deep waters, and thy foot- steps are not known.' We cannot trace him, nor find out the reason of everything that God doeth ; only, in the general, that ' he doeth all things well,' Mark vii. 37 ; nay, what is best.
2. We must distinguish betw^een a part of God's work and the end of it. We cannot understand God's providence till he hath done his work. He is an impatient spectator that cannot tarry till the last act, wherein all errors are reconciled : John xiii. 7, ' What I do thou knowest not now, but hereafter thou slialt know.' No wonder if we are much in the dark, if we look only to present sense and present appearance. Then his purposes are hidden from us ; he bringeth one contrary out of another, light out of darkness, meat out of the eater. God knoweth what he is a- doing with you, when you know not : Jer. xxix. 11, ' I know my thoughts, to give you an expected end.' When we view providences by pieces, we know not God's mind ; for the present we see him (it may be) rending and tearing all things ; therefore let us not judge of God's work by the beginnings, till all work together. Our present state may be very sad and uncomfortable, and yet God is designing the choicest mercies to us : Ps. xxxi. 22, ' 1 said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes ; nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee;' Ps. cxvi. 11, ' I said in my haste, All men are liars.' Haste never speaketh well of God nor his promises, nor maketh any good comment upon his dealings.