4. The judgments inflicted are always short of the cause, surely they uever exceed the value of it : Ezra ix. 13, ' Thou hast punished us less than we have deserved.' God doth not exact the whole debt of sinners which they owe to his justice. It was a heavy stroke that then lighted upon Jerusalem. VTas their wound but a scratch, or affliction little ? Doleful and sad ruin was brought upon that place, the city and the temple burnt to a.shes, the people carried captive to a strange land ; yet • Thou hast punished us less than we have deserved.' They were in Babylon, they might have been in hell ; our reward is always more than our desert, but our punishment is always less than our de- sert. We count it a favour if forfeiture of life be punished with banishment, or if a sentence of banishment be commuted into a fine, or the fine be mitigated and brought lower ; and shall we think God dealeth rigorously with us ? "\^lien he layeth on some heavy cross, he might have cast us into hell, and laid his hand upon us for ever. See Job xi. 6, ' 0 know, therefore, that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.' "We have low thoughts of sin, and therefore have grievous apprehensions of God's judgments. We do but sip of the cup, when God might make us drink of the dregs of it.
Secondly, I am to prove that the godly may discern much of fjiithful- ness in their afflictions; this will appear to you by these considerations: — 1. In the covenant of grace God hath promised to bestow upon his people real and principal mercies; these are promised absolutely, other things conditionally. God doth not break his covenant if he doth not give us temporal happiness, because that is not absolutely promised, but only so far forth as it may be good for us ; but eternal life is promised without any such exception unto the heirs of promise. Eternal promises and threatenings, being of things absolutely good or evil, are therefore absolute and peremptory ; the righteous shall not fail of the reward, nor the wicked escape the punishment ; but teiii-
296 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [Ser. LXXXIII.
poral promises and tlireatenings being of things not simply good or evil, are reserved to be dispensed according to God's wisdom and good pleasure, in reference and subordination to eternal happiness. It is true it is said, 1 Tim. iv. 8, that ' godliness hath the promise of this life, and that which is to come ; ' but with this reference, that the less gives place to the greater ; if the promises of this life may hinder us in looking after the promises of the life to come, God may take the liberty of the cross, and withhold these things, and disappoint us of our worldly hope. A man lying under the guilt of sin may many times enjoy worldly comforts to the envy of God's children, and one of God's children may be greatly afflicted and distressed in the world, for in all these dispensations God looketh to his end, which is to make us eternally happy.
2. This being God's end, he is obliged in point of fidelity to use all the means that conduce thereunto, that he may attain his eternal pur- pose in bringing his holy ones to glory : Rom, viii. 28, ' All things shall work together for good to them that love God.' Good ! what good ? It may be temporal, so it falls out sometimes a man's tem- poral good is promoted by his temporal loss : Gen. 1. 20, ' Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it for good ;' they sold their brother a slave, but God meant him to be a great potentate in Egypt. It may be spiritual good: Ps. cxix. 71, 'It is good for me that I have been afflicted.' But, to be sure, eternal good, to bring about his eternal purpose of making them everlastingly happy. And in this sense the apostle saith, ' All things are yours,' 1 Cor. iii. 22. Ordinances, provi- dences, life, death, all dispensed with a respect to their final happiness or eternal benefit; not only ordinances to work internal grace, but provi- dences as an external help and means ; for God having set his end, he will prosecute it congruously, and as it may agree with man's nature, by external providences as well as internal grace. See Ps. cxxv. 3, ' The rod of the wicked shall not always rest upon the back of the righteous.' God hath power enough to give them grace to bear it, though the rod had continued ; and can keep his people from iniquity, though the rod be upon them ; but he considereth the imbecility of man's nature, which is apt to tire under long afflictions, and therefore not only giveth more grace, but takes off the temptation. He could humble Paul without a thorn in the flesh, 2 Cor. xii. 7, but he will use a congruous means.
3. Among these means, afflictions, yea, sharp afflictions, are some of those things which our need and profit requireth ; they are needful to weaken and mortify sin : Isa. xxvii. 9, ' By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged ;' to increase and quicken grace: Heb. xii. 10, 'But he chasteneth us for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holi- ness.' Without this discipline we should forget God and ourselves ; therefore, that we may return to God, he afflicts us : Hosea v. 15, ' In their afflictions tliey will seek me early ;' and come to ourselves : Luke XV. 17, the prodigal ' came to himself.' Afflictions are necessary for us upon the former suppositions, namely, that God hath engaged him- self to perfect grace where it is begun, and to use all means which may conduce to our eternal welfare, that we may not miscarry and come short of our great hopes : 1 Cor. xi. 32, ' When we are judged,