(3.) For our eternal good. Heaven will make us complete amends
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for all that we suffer here : 2 Cor. iv. 17, ' Those light afflictions which are but for a momeut worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; ' these afflictions are so far from infringing our happiness, that they do promote it. How promote ? and how work ? Partly as the patient enduring doth secure our interest. God will not fail to reward them that patiently suffer for his salce, or submit to his discipline ; for these transitory light afflictions and sufferings are so accepted by him, that they are sure to be rewarded by him : Mat. V. 12, ' Great is your reward in heaven ;' and James i. 12, ' Blessed is the man that endureth temptations, for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life, which God hath promised to them that love him.' Partly as they are a means which God useth to draw us off from the love and esteem of the world, and to awaken in us an earnest desire and serious pursuit after heavenly things, Gal. vi. 14. They conduce to mortification, and kill the gust of the flesh ; so that our title is not only more secured, but our hearts prepared. Partly because here is the full recompense, the good that answers all objections ; if cast out by men, you are received by the Lord ; if calumniated by the world, approved by God ; if you have lost the love of all men for your faithfulness and sincerity, you shall enjoy the love of God ; if im- prisoned, you shall shortly be in your Father's house. There all your fears and sorrows will be at an end, your desires accomplished, and your expectations satisfied ; it is heaven that turneth pain into pleasure, death into life. And partly because, though we fail in particular con- flicts, yet God secureth our everlasting estate. Romani prcelio scepe victi, hello iiusquam. So christians. We cannot say that always there is such sensible benefits by afflictions ; but this is the sense of the place, as the following verses show, that the general issue of things is determined and put out of controversy by it. The infallibility of God's conduct cannot be discerned by every particular event ; for a christiaa may not gain by every trouble he falleth into, but by all together his eternal estate is promoted ; they all are means to preserve us till we come to heaven. Thus you see how he that could turn stones into bread, water into wine, can extract a blessing out of om- saddest miseries and afflictions, and make the bitterest herbs to yield honey to the saints.
2. The certainty of this — ' We know.' Not by an uncertain and fallible conjecture, but upon sure grounds. What are they ?
[1.] The promise of God, by which he hath secured the salvation of his people, notwithstanding their troubles : Heb. vi. 17, 18, ' Wherein Ood, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.' God's resolved purpose declared in his covenant ■cannot be altered ; his promises in time are his eternal purpose before time ; he hath undertaken by promise and oath to be their God, the God of their salvation.
[2.] By the experiences of the saints, who have found it so : Ps. <;xix. 67, ' Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I learn thy statutes ;' they have been persuaded of it : Phil. i. 19, ' I know that
264 SERMONS UPON BOMANS VIII. [SeR. XXXVII.
this shall turn to my salvation.' All the troubles he endured should be so ordered by God, as they at length turn to his eternal happiness.
[3.] From the nature of the thing.: Two considerations enforce it —
(1.) All things are at God's disposal, and forced to serve him. Men, devils, crosses, and comforts, nothing can fall out against or with- out his will. Angels, devils, men, have no power to null and frustrate his decrees, for he is the supreme and universal lord : Ps. xxxiii. 11, ' The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever ; the thouglit of his heart to all generations ;' and therefore he blasts and frustrateth all the devices of the wicked, and what he decreeth shall immutably come to pass.
(2.) His special care over his people. He hath carried them in the ■womb of his decrees before the foundation of the world ; lie lovetli them more than a mother loveth her tender infant : Isa. xlix. 15, ' Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb ? yea, they may forget, but I will not forget thee.' If the mother be so tenderly affected to the child whom she carried in her womb for some few months, will not God much more ? He is as tender of them as the apple of his eye, Zech. ii. 8. He liath secured his covenant-love by promise : 1 Cor. x. 13, ' But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able ;' he will never leave you to insupportable difSculties.