(2.) For support. If deliverance cometh not yet, if God giveth sup- port, we have no reason to complain ; as he that is well clad is not much annoyed with the cold. David prayed, and counted support an answer : Ps. cxxxviii. 3, ' In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.' It is a real answer to have strength to bear out in our troubles, though deliverance be not yet come. Sustentation is a degree and beginning of deliverance, though God doth not remove the trouble : Isa. xl. 31, ' But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.' God enables them to bear up and hold out when they seem to be quite spent.
(3.) So for direction. This is another of those intervening mercies, Ps. cxliii. 10. David was in great danger, and beggeth for deliverance ;
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or if not that, yet for instruction — ' Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God.' The danger of sin is a greater inconvenience than the danger of troubles. Now he beggeth wisdom of God to carry it well under his trouble ; for in our troubles we are very apt to miscarry, un- less God guide us continually. Necessity is an ill counsellor, and will soon tempt us to some indirect course ; and therefore it is a great mercy to have our guide : Isa. Iviii. 11, ' And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought.' In our gloomy and dark condition God will lead us by the hand and help us over our stum- bling-blocks.'
Ill, What is the work of faith under afflictions ?
1. To enlighten the mind, that we may judge aright of afflictions. Sense maketh lies of God, and causeth us to judge amiss of his dispen- sations. Why ? because it judgeth of them by the outside and present feeling : Heb xii. 11, ' No affliction for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.' Alas ! if we should judge of all God's care and love by our sense of his present dealing, we shall conclude that he hath no respect to his people. Therefore faith, that is the evidence of things not seen, is needful, that we may interpret God's providence, and rightly understand his dealing with us. Faith remedieth this double evil of sense, because it interpreteth things not according to their outside and visible appearance, but according to the promise. Agaiu, it looketh not upon providence by pieces, but in their whole draught, to the end of things.
[1.] Faith is necessary, that we may not dwell in the bark and out- side of God's dispensations. Sense judgeth /car oylrip^hj outward appear- ances, and so informs you of nothing but expressions of God's anger ; but faith can see love in his angei-, and unfold the riddles and mysteries of providence, and showeth you how God can extract honey and sweet- ness out of gall and wormwood, and that his heart is full of love when his hands are smart and heavy upon us ; as when he had a mind to bless Jacob he breaketh his thigh, and maketh him halt and go lame ; and the bucket goeth down into the well the deeper, that it may come up the fuller. So that whatsoever appeareth, faith concludeth that God is a good God. Faith, ploughing with God's heifer, cometh to know his design : Job xi. 6, ' And that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is.' By the secrets of wisdom is meant the hidden ways of his providence. Divine providence hath two faces, the one of rigour, the other of clemency sweetly tempered therewith ; like a plaited picture, that one way representeth the face of a virgin, another way the face of a serpent. We look upon it but of one side, and think that he dealeth harshly with us, and that all is wrath and severity ; his love is hidden from us when we we feel nothing but pain, and smart, and blows, but faith showeth it to us.
[2.] Faith is necessary, that we may not judge by the present, not looking to what is to come. He that looketh upon the first rude draught of any notable work seeth no beauty in it : Ps. xxxi, 22, ' For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes ; ' and Ps. cxvi. 11, ' I said in my haste. All men are liars.' David was fain to eat his words spoken in haste. The fumes of passion and carnal affection
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blind tlie mind, that we look only to what is present. David was quieted when he saw their end, Ps. Ixxiii. 17. This settled him and satisfied him, to consider what this will be in the issue. The end puts the difference.
2. To teach us to carry ourselves heroically, above our present con- dition, not as overcome and dejected by it unto an uncomely sorrow : 2 Cor. iv. 16, 'For this cause we faint not; for though our outward man perish, our inward man is renewed day by day,' He was happy in the increase of comfort and grace by the decrease of worldly felicity, by his outward pressures being the more incited, and made the more towardly to the performance of his duty : 2 Cor. vi. 8-10, ' By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report, as deceivers, and yet true ; as unknown, and yet well known ; as dying, and behold we live ; as chastened, and not killed ; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing ; as poor, yet making many rich ; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.* Thus doth a christian live above his outward estate by faith ; if con- tumeliously used by some, yet reverently respected by others ; though vilified by some, yet commended by others ; ' deceivers, yet true,' that is, though he was represented as an impostor, yet those that had eyes to see might easily see and find him to be a faithful dispenser of the truths of God. Good christians are persuaded of it, and the wicked are convinced of it, however they seem to dissemble it ; we are looked upon by some as if they knew us not, yet by others we are owned and valued ; in danger, but yet sustained ; exercised with a little affliction, yet we have a being and an opportunity of service ; looked upon as miserable, and in a sinking condition, yet always cheerful, rejoicing in the testimony of a good conscience; as poor, and having little of worldly substance, yet enriching others with grace and the gifts of the Spirit ; as having nothing, yet we are so provided for by God's pro- vidence as to want nothing that is necessary and useful for us ; not having the wealth of the world in our hands, yet having enough for necessary use with contentment. Thus should a christian live above, yea, contrary to his worldly condition. Once more, hear Paul again expressing his condition : 2 Cor. iv. 8, 9, ' We are troubled on every side, but not distressed ; we are perplexed, but not in desjiair ; perse- cuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but not destroyed ; ' wrestling with all difficulties, yet sustained by an invisible assistance ; brought to ex- tremity as to any secular and human means, yet carried through. This should be the temper of a gracious heart, never more exalted than in his low degree, never more humble than when most exalted ; still there is work for faith, but no ground for discouragement.